"If a just system of exchanges were acted upon, the value of articles would be determined by the entire cost of production; and equal values should always exchange for equal values. If, for instance, it takes a hatter one day to make a hat, and a shoemaker the same time to make a pair of shoes -- supposing the material used by each to be of the same value --and they exchange these articles with each other, they are not only mutually but equally benefited: the advantage derived by either party cannot be a disadvantage to the other, as each has given the same amount of labor, and the materials made use of by each were of equal value. But if the hatter should obtain two pair of shoes for one hat -- time and value of material being as before -- the exchange would clearly be an unjust one. The hatter would defraud the shoemaker of one day's labor; and were the former to act thus in all his exchanges, he would receive, for the labor of half a year, the product of some other person's whole year. We have heretofore acted upon no other than this most unjust system of exchanges -- the workmen have given the capitalist the labor of a whole year, in exchange for the value of only half a year -- and from this, and not from the assumed inequality of bodily and mental powers in individuals, has arisen the inequality of wealth and power which at present exists around us. It is an inevitable condition inequality of exchanges -- of buying at one price and selling at another -- that capitalists shall continue to be capitalists, and working men to be working men -- the one a class of tyrants and the other a class of slaves -- to eternity....
"The whole transaction, therefore, plainly shews that the capitalists and proprietors do no more than give the working man, for his labor of one week, a part of the wealth which they obtained from him the week before!
-- which amounts to giving him nothing for something....
"The whole transaction, therefore, between the producer and the capitalist is a palpable deception, a mere farce: it is, in fact, in thousands of instances, no other than a barefaced though legalized robbery."(Bray, pp.45, 48, 49 and 50)
"... the gain of the employer will never cease to be the loss of the unemployed -- until the exchanges between the parties are equal; and exchanges never can be equal while society is divided into capitalists and producers -- the last living upon their labor and the first bloating upon the profit of that labor.
"It is plain [continues Mr.Bray] that, establish whatever form of government we will... we may talk of morality and brotherly love...
no reciprocity can exist where there are unequal exchanges. Inequality of exchanges, as being the cause of inequality of possessions, is the secret enemy that devours us."(Bray, pp.51 and 52)
"It has been deduced, also, from a consideration of the intention and end of society, not only that all men should labor, and thereby become exchangers, but that equal values should always exchange for equal values -- and that, as the gain of one man ought never to be the loss of another, value should be determined by cost of production. but we have seen, that, under the present arrangements of society... the gain of the capitalist and the rich man is always the loss of the workman -- that this result will invariably take place, and the poor man be left entirely at the mercy of the rich man, under any and every form of government, so long as there is inequality of exchanges -- and that equality of exchanges can be ensured only under social arrangements in which labor is universal....
"If exchanges were equal, would the wealth of the present capitalists gradually go from them to the working classes."(Bray, pp.53-55)
"So long as this system of unequal exchanges is tolerated, the producers will be almost as poor and as ignorant and as hardworked as they are at present, even if every governmental burthen be swept away and all taxes be abolished... nothing but a total change of this system -- an equality of labor and exchanges -- can alter this state of rights....
"The producers have but to make an effort -- and by them must every effort for their own redemption be made -- and their chains will be snapped asunder forever....
"As an end, the political equality is there a failure, as a means, also, it is there a failure.
"Where equal exchanges are maintained, the gain of one man cannot be the loss of another; for every exchange is then simply a transfer, and not a sacrifice of labor and wealth. Thus, although under a social system based on equal exchanges, a parsimonious man may become rich, his wealth will be no more than the accumulated produce of his own labor. He may exchange his wealth, or he may give it to others... but a rich man cannot continue wealthy for any length of time after he has ceased to labor. Under equality of exchanges, wealth cannot have, as it now has, a procreative and apparently self-generating power, such as replenishes all waste from consumption;for, unless it be renewed by labor, wealth, when once consumed, is given up for ever. That which is now called profit and interest cannot exist as such in connection with equality of exchanges; for producer and distributor would be alike remunerated, and the sum total of their labor would determine the value of the article created and brought to the hands of the consumer....
"The principle of equal exchanges, therefore, must from its very nature ensure universal labor."(Bray, pp.67, 88, 89, 94, 109-10)
After having refuted the objections of the economists to communism, Mr.
Bray goes on to say:
"If, then a changed character be essential to the success of the social system of community in its most perfect form -- and if, likewise, the present system affords no circumstances and no facilities for effecting the requisite change of character and preparing man for the higher and better state desired -- it is evident that these things must necessarily remain as they are....
